In the next academic year, the Penn Student Insurance Plan will begin offering a new benefit for transgender students — it will cover the cost of the gender confirmation process, also known as gender reassignment or transition.

The benefit covers the costs of surgery for up to $50,000. According to a research report by the organization Transgender At Work, the cost of male-to-female surgery can average around $20,000.

The bounteousness of the Penn plan may well be the exception to the generally low quality of college insurance. An investigation by the attorney general of New York, Andrew Cuomo, indicated earlier this month that many college health insurance plans in his state were overpriced and provided lousy coverage.

According to the gay and lesbian civil rights organization the Human Rights Campaign, “the vast majority of commercial health insurance plans in the United States exclude all or most coverage for treatment related to gender transition.”[Image via]